‘His body flew to the ceiling like he was in a rocket': Miracle as elevator cable snaps and teen survives THREE-story drop

A Bronx teenager is lucky to be alive after the cable on a elevator car he was in snapped, sending him plummeting down three floors.

Kenneth Lacen, 17, got into the elevator around 9pm on Thursday after spending the evening visiting friends on the fifth floor of a Woodycrest Avenue apartment block.

As the car neared the second floor, where Lacen lives, the cable suddenly split, sending him flying through the air.

‘His body flew to the ceiling like he was in a rocket,’ his godmother Tashone Glenn, 36, told the New York Daily News. ‘He hit his back. He is alive by the grace of God.’

The force of the impact shook the building, alarming Lacen’s godbrothers who realised he was in there.

They started screaming ‘Are you okay?’ He was shocked and scared,’ said his cousin Tiffany Shalmers, 30.

Lacen was taken to Lincoln Hospital where he was treated for neck and back injuries, after being rescued by firefighters.

The Grace Dodge High School sophomore said his life flashed before his eyes during his ordeal, adding that the faulty elevator was an accident waiting to happen.

‘I just heard the thing pop and it just went down, I thought I was going to die,’ he told CBS.

‘When it came down I flew in the air, I hurt my back and my knee, When it came down I flew in the air, I hurt my back and my knee.’

It isn’t the first time the six-story building has suffered elevator-related problems.

There are three open violations, according to Department of Buildings records, including failure to maintain building in code for worn car shoes, improper lighting and insecure electrical wires on the top of the elevator.